John divides his time between the National Centre and the Faculty of Engineering and Surveying, where he holds a Chair of Engineering. His chief interest is mechatronics, a blend of mechanical and electronic engineering with control theory and computer software, which embraces robotics and computer vision.

Many of the research projects he supervises have an agricultural theme, while others such as aids for the disabled and systems to deter tailgating have become associated with the NCEA because it is an 'interface with the real world'.

He has organised a series of conferences which have drawn together mechatronics and machine vision research from around the world; M2VIP 2000 held in Hervey Bay September 19-21 has resulted in a hardback book.

He is convinced that good engineering research comes from strong industrial motivation and has helped to found many companies over the years.� He is still a director of Portech Ltd though distance has worn the links very thin.

His patents range from algorithms for controlling an autopilot to electronic controls for a domestic cooker, with instruments to measure rising damp in houses to monitoring the washing of beer barrels along the way.

Research and development topics:

Cambridge

Predictive control of Third and Higher Order Systems. Development of a laser phototypesetting system. (for Monotype corporation) Development of a personal computer operating system for engineering applications. Development of a multicomputer system. (A very early network) Development of the Acoustic Telescope, a microphone array and computer system to image the sound sources from the Olympus jet engine, part of the Concorde development. Real time signal capture system applied to the analysis of violins!

Portsmouth Development of a low-cost daisywheel printer. Use of sensor redundancy for increasing autopilot safety. Automated adjustment of control components - the 'Craftsman Robot'. Computer assisted quality control. Embedded microprocessors for domestic appliances, particularly for the user interface. Development of single-chip ASICs for appliance control. Wall-climbing robots - later used for inspection of nuclear facilities. Automated test equipment for manufacturing plants. Automatic control of a sewage treatment pilot plant, for investigating an 'activated sludge' process. (This led to involvement in a multi-million dollar flocculating blanket plant installed on the Isle of Wight.)

Toowoomba Vision guidance of tractors. Control of the track of a trailed implement. Visual inspection and grading of produce. Further wall-climbing and mobile robots. Aids for the disabled. Tail gating deterrents. Control of a bakery. Automatic control of load-haul-dump mining vehicles. An autonomous mobile robot for training cutting horses. Computer-based instrumentation for measuring torpor in Sminthopsis Macrouri (the 'Darling Downs Dunnart'). Low cost GPS for guidance of farm vehicles.